Personal "Deal Breakers" for watching Fan Productions

I wonder if, rather than portraying a top-of-the-line Starfleet crew, a fanfilm following the adventures of a group of civilians on a privately owned former Starfleet vessel (a little like how Kirk commanded the Enterprise-A briefly after she was given to the Chal defense force in Shatner's novel The Ashes of Eden, or the USS Raven crewed by Seven of Nine's parents)?

Not that I'm trying to tell anyone how to do their thing. Just something that bothered me a little and how I'd deal with it if I were making a fanfilm.

 

S'okath and Son, Sellers of Fine Antiques.


"Be forewarned, E'lisabeq, for I am transcending my mortality by which to accompany you in the afterlife!"

 

We did close to this in Project Potemkin. The project was not only to discover how far you could push a ship beyond it's designed age limit but staffed with a crew either winding up their careers or were borderline cadets.

 

And a few cast offs from other ships.

 

Bring back Reigert!!

 

Uh, no.

 

Oh come on now the guy was awesome. His first assignment was on the U.S.S. Intrepid where he drove all the Vulcans so crazy they kicked him off the ship and flew directly into the first giant amoeba-like creature they could find.
That was the confused logic Spock was feeling.

 

It seems to me that you tend to notice things like the physical condition of the cast more when you're free from the distractions of good acting, engaging performances and a well-written script.

 

Not quite the same thing but Paul Olsen, who painted the Motion Picture Enterprise, had made some replicas of a spare decal sheet as used on the filming miniature back in the late 70s. The only way to purchase one is to donate a specified sum ($175 I think) to the "Project Enterprise" cash-grab, I mean fundraiser to rebuild the TMP Enterprise he and others are helming. I recall reading that "part" of the 3 million they seek to raise will be used to "outfit an L.A. workspace to be used for the 16-month project". Sound familiar? Much as I'd like to have a copy of the decal sheet, I've seen enough of their maudlin pitch and attempts to rewrite the history of who designed the refit E that I would never buy one if it effectively meant I'd be donating to that effort.

Generally, I cannot support any activity that involves taking advantage of a fan-base's gullibility.

 

I presume the issue here is that he's basically selling Trek merchandise, and that what he funds is irrelevant. Fair enough. But if he had negotiated a license to sell the decal sheets, and said the proceeds would go towards Project Enterprise, would that have been okay?

What exactly are the dos and don'ts with regards to financing set space for a fan film? What is appropriate and what is not, and would those rules apply if copyright weren't an issue?

 

Actually I personally don't care at all about potential licensing issues.

 

Feel free to elaborate on that. Do you just object to that particular kind of funding model, where you buy something and the funds go toward a project? Would it matter if a non-profit was managing the funds? I'm not sure I understand your reasoning.

 

Ok, that's funny. And creative. Well done.

 

Feel free to look into the pitch if you want to understand why someone might be skeptical.

My point in bringing up the decal sheet was only that as much as I'd like to have a copy, and don't find the dollar amount objectionable, the "deal breaker" (recalling the title of this thread) is that I'd have to donate to a bullsh*t fundraising campaign in order to get one. As I indicated in my initial post, that's not quite the same as someone standing on a mountaintop loudly proclaiming their refusal to watch a fan production because they don't like the people involved and/or their practices (even though they secretly will watch ).

 

So it has more to do with your personal assessment of how this specific project is being run, rather than the specific practice of using the decal sheet sales to fund the project? I'm not familiar with the project. Can you give me a link to a discussion on this?

 

Wow, aren't you Ensign Debbie Downer...

 

I'm writing that one down, you never know if it will come in handy.....

 

There is a fan film series (well two full-length films and a short; they've stopped because of the guidelines) which follows a private merchant vessel. That's Star Trek: Aurora. The links to all three are here: http://startrekreviewed.blogspot.com/2009/06/25.html . It's not a retired Starfleet vessel, though.

 

The link to the "Do You Mind (Meld)?" short on YouTube on your page doesn't work for me; I get "Quest of the Key - Fantasy Movie Teaser."

This one appears to be correct:



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By the way, I love Aurora.

 

Thank you, I've corrected the link. I always appreciate it when somebody notifies me of a mistake. You probably just saved a few dozen people time, if not a few hundred.