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Axanar found 100K to cut from their budget....

Captain Atkin said:
So much "doom and gloom" around here. For my money, Axanar looks like the closest thing I've seen to Star Trek: Enterprise on screen. Prelude to Axanar was great, and the teaser scene on Vulcan was excellent.

Directing - editing - acting - costumes - music - FX... this project looks and feels like Trek. Genuine Star Trek. People have been clamouring for a season 5 of Enterprise, and this is probably the closest we will ever get to that. I have been more than impressed by what I have seen from them. If they found a way to make a few cuts to their budget, that is fantastic.
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We will have to agree to disagree then. I concur that Axanar has managed to recreate the "look" of Star Trek Enterprise from 2004, but that's about it. The script for "Prelude" was sloppy. As a sizzle reel, it's shiny to look at yes, but the Vulcan scene went absolutely nowhere for me. The performance was stilted, the camerawork shoddy and the overall impact was marginal at best.

Now, you might characterize these as "drive-bys" or as "doom and gloom" because the one thing Axanar fandom seems to have in common is it's complete and utter intolerance for any kind of contrary opinion to OMGWTFBBQTHISISTHEGREATESTTHINGEVARRRR but I have my opinions on the film's prelude and the one short scene we have seen, and it's getting tiresome having those critiques mischaracterized and attacked because they don't concur with the perceived "groupthink" on the matter.

I am of course very happy that so many are being entertained and enjoy Axanar (or what little we've seen of it thus far) but I reserve my right to judge the film on it's own when I have the chance to see it in full. Until then, I'm remaining skeptical. Talk is cheap and Alec Peters and Robert Burnett's PR shenanigans aside, they have a lot to prove as far as I'm concerned and you're hardly in a position to be commenting from an unbiased perspective, Captain Atkin.
 
northstar said:
They are exactly in time where they should be, with filming starting in january. Realistically, I would not expect the first half of the film to be done before april or may.
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And elements of TrekBBS will of course be squawking "where is it? where is it? where is it?!" that whole time, despite the schedule having been publicized for some time now. :shrug: I guess it be something to do for some people in between bouts of being shocked that CBS legal hasn't intervened.
 
Karzak said:
Captain Atkin said:
So much "doom and gloom" around here. For my money, Axanar looks like the closest thing I've seen to Star Trek: Enterprise on screen. Prelude to Axanar was great, and the teaser scene on Vulcan was excellent.

Directing - editing - acting - costumes - music - FX... this project looks and feels like Trek. Genuine Star Trek. People have been clamouring for a season 5 of Enterprise, and this is probably the closest we will ever get to that. I have been more than impressed by what I have seen from them. If they found a way to make a few cuts to their budget, that is fantastic.
Click to expand...

We will have to agree to disagree then. I concur that Axanar has managed to recreate the "look" of Star Trek Enterprise from 2004, but that's about it. The script for "Prelude" was sloppy. As a sizzle reel, it's shiny to look at yes, but the Vulcan scene went absolutely nowhere for me. The performance was stilted, the camerawork shoddy and the overall impact was marginal at best.

Now, you might characterize these as "drive-bys" or as "doom and gloom" because the one thing Axanar fandom seems to have in common is it's complete and utter intolerance for any kind of contrary opinion to OMGWTFBBQTHISISTHEGREATESTTHINGEVARRRR but I have my opinions on the film's prelude and the one short scene we have seen. I reserve my right to judge the film on it's own when I have the chance to see it in full. Until then, I'm remaining skeptical. Talk is cheap and Alec Peters and Robert Burnett's PR shenanigans aside, they have a lot to prove as far as I'm concerned and you're hardly in a position to be commenting from an unbiased perspective, Captain Atkin.
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I quite enjoyed the Prelude film, but I'm forced to agree with you about the vulcan scene. i'm happy to "wait and see" since we got plenty of time and i don't donate.
 
I detailed my issues with the shortcomings of the Prelude to Axanar script in the old Axanar thread, so I'm not going to go into it again here. The point is, it's hardly the best written fan film out there, and since you've mentioned it, no, I didn't really care for the "queen bitch whore" comment either.
 
With all the people looking to take potshots at Axanar these days, including other fan film producers, perhaps we should just rename this sub-forum the Axanar Whine Fest.

Does anyone actually have anything positive to say about anything anymore?
 
Jedman67 said:
I distinctly recall the first Axanar kickstarter mentioned certain cost projections, including the need to setup studio space and build sets and all that came out to around 500-600k. That's before shooting. So if they found places where they can save 100k from their costs (a recent blog post mentioned renting used camera equipment at a third of the cost of retail, for example) all power to them. (just stop posting about that goddamn cat!!!)
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https://web.archive.org/web/20140802054811/https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/194429923/star-trek-axanar

When we talk about the kickstarter... lets talk about what the kickstarter looked like when it was open accepting donations, not what it was later edited to look like by the production team.

The initial budget, in the linked Wayback Machine page was 650K, roughly what they raised.... Later edits, were made and bumped that up to roughly 850, and the 350K listed for production costs were deemphasized...

The 350K in production costs estimated, blew up to be almost 1.2M with the Indigogo... that's almost 4 times as much, as the initial estimate...
 
Karzak said:
Maurice said:
Well, one can hope Axanar doesn't end up as wretched as Space Command is looking. Their recent trailer is godawful.
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Indeed. As I said in the other thread, there's less cheese in Wisconsin than we see in that trailer. Yeesh!
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What's going on out there in L.A.? Has the drought fried everyone's brain?

From the guy that (1/2) brought us World Enough and Time(The Camembert of fan eps) - We seem to be getting some... melty Velveeta?

Edit: I'll cut it a little slack as

1) Sometimes a trailer is not the greatest indicator and

2)Babylon 5 reunion! Maybe this 'll be like a putative Legend of the Rangers - only with a rebel Android Miner.

Say it with me, Robert Picardo- "Photons be Free!"
 
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Jedi_Master said:
Maurice said:
If the scripts were supposed to be distributed in May but that was postponed, were all the donors expecting it emailed as to this delay? If not, the production is at fault for failing to communicate this.
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Yes. Good communication is important. I have heard other vague complaints about the Axanar team's communication with donor's but nothing concrete as of yet.
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When it comes to perk fulfillment, apparently donors are supposed to follow the Fulfillment blog on the Axanar Website...
 
USS Intrepid said:
With all the people looking to take potshots at Axanar these days, including other fan film producers, perhaps we should just rename this sub-forum the Axanar Whine Fest.

Does anyone actually have anything positive to say about anything anymore?
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I will have something positive to say, when they meet their obligations...

The first Axanar Kickstarter ended 15 months ago, and in that 15 months, they haven't even taken the time to update their donor wall with people who contributed to that fundraiser. Of ALL the things they could do, that would be easy, would be putting names up on a stinking website, and they can't even take the time to do that.

I am sorry, if complaining about Axanar hurts your sensibilities, but every month drags on and all we get are more blogs about Conventions....
 
SuperSpaceMan said:
https://web.archive.org/web/2014080...arter.com/projects/194429923/star-trek-axanar

When we talk about the kickstarter... lets talk about what the kickstarter looked like when it was open accepting donations, not what it was later edited to look like by the production team.

The initial budget, in the linked Wayback Machine page was 650K, roughly what they raised.... Later edits, were made and bumped that up to roughly 850, and the 350K listed for production costs were deemphasized...

The 350K in production costs estimated, blew up to be almost 1.2M with the Indigogo... that's almost 4 times as much, as the initial estimate...
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Yes, i remember the blog posts about how they managed to raise far above what they initially expected, so they revised their "very rough budgets" in mind with the funding they received.

SuperSpaceMan said:
I will have something positive to say, when they meet their obligations...

The first Axanar Kickstarter ended 15 months ago, and in that 15 months, they haven't even taken the time to update their donor wall with people who contributed to that fundraiser. Of ALL the things they could do, that would be easy, would be putting names up on a stinking website, and they can't even take the time to do that.
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Fair point; updating a website is a lot easier than shipping thousands of dvd's or patches or whatnot. Have you emailed them asking for an update?

To a certain degree, the conventions are important (why the need to go to every single one in North America is beyond me). It provides them with an avenue for releasing promotional materials, and lets them engage with fans (and likely solicit money from them).

I am sorry, if complaining about Axanar hurts your sensibilities, but every month drags on and all we get are more blogs about Conventions....
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Complain all you want. I"ll even spot you the cost of a pitchfork! :D
 
I swear some of you turn complaining into an olympic sport.

Exactly as Jedman has said, their convention attending has a specific purpose, that of increasing their visibility. And besides, those usually occur on the weekends, do you expect Alec Peters and his core people to work 7 days a week on this project? That would be a sure way that they would get burned out and the film never gets finished.
 
^ Of course complaining about the complaining is lobbying hard for inclusion, and at the current rate of production it looks like complaining about complaining about complaining will also be vying for Olympic status by time Axanar finally releases something tangible.
 
Jedman67 said:
To a certain degree, the conventions are important (why the need to go to every single one in North America is beyond me). It provides them with an avenue for releasing promotional materials, and lets them engage with fans (and likely solicit money from them).
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I suppose I get that, *BUT* is it necessary to blog about each convention, if there is no news to share, from the convention, and instead include news about the actual production?

Also, really, do we need more cat blogs?

Just make the movie already.....
 
SuperSpaceMan said:
I will have something positive to say, when they meet their obligations...

The first Axanar Kickstarter ended 15 months ago, and in that 15 months, they haven't even taken the time to update their donor wall with people who contributed to that fundraiser. Of ALL the things they could do, that would be easy, would be putting names up on a stinking website, and they can't even take the time to do that.

I am sorry, if complaining about Axanar hurts your sensibilities, but every month drags on and all we get are more blogs about Conventions....
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It doesn't hurt my sensibilities at all, but is is frustrating when what feels like most of the threads in this sub-forum get hijacked by Axanar whining. Some of those are valid complaints, and some of them, frankly, just seem to be people looking to score points. And no, I'm not pointing fingers at anyone in particular, so make of that what you will.

If you have a valid issue, try taking it up with the people producing Axanar. There's no point belabouring the point in a venue that doesn't actually include anyone from Axanar.
 
There's whining and then there are legitimate complaints. If someone is a donor and feels the production is not living up to it's promises in terms of perk fulfillment or what have you, that's a perfect valid concern to raise in public, especially as an FYI to other potential donors.
 
Maurice said:
There's whining and then there are legitimate complaints. If someone is a donor and feels the production is not living up to it's promises in terms of perk fulfillment or what have you, that's a perfect valid concern to raise in public, especially as an FYI to other potential donors.
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Very true. Though it does seem some of the most vociferous 'whiners' are NOT donors. I gave Axanar a couple hundred bucks. Hope they actually finish the project and it's a success for them. Don't really care about the perks. I won't complain at all if they actually produce a product that's not utter crap. ;-)
 
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