BREAKING: Official Fan Film Guidelines Issued

[Amaris]

Wow- someone's feeling threatened, aren't they?
Dear Paramount: you aren't meeting demand.
I wonder if there would be any fear of fan backlash if all the current fan productions continued and the studio sued all of them?

Paramount/CBS is meeting demand. They've had two Trek films in the past 7 years, and a new one next month. They have a TV series debuting next year. They have piles of merchandise for you to purchase if you so desire. What they aren't doing is letting a fan production take their intellectual property and make money off of it, which is what Axanar was doing. Sorry, this isn't about Paramount being threatened, it's about Axanar stealing from Paramount and trying to resell the property as their own.

 

[Philip Guyott]

Can pre-existing productions released to the public before the guidelines/rules came out still be shown on social media platforms such as YouTube?

Also, can Continues (formally called ‘Star Trek Continues’) and other fan series complete one last final episode or must they stop now on account of the fact that they are a continuing series?

With FX it was going to be about 24 minutes. We have to reevaluate and shorten a few of our FX scenes. Either that or we break it up into two videos which is really something I would rather not do. Time will tell.

Please do consider putting it in two parts of 12 minutes each as I would love to see all your hard work. I hope you can still include George Takei. Thank you for all you have done for us fans.

 

[captainkirk]

The guidelines actually have me somewhat excited about fan films again. They will actually be fan films.

Although it's what people are complaining about the most, I'm interested to see how the filmmakers handle the time limit. There are some really great independant short films out there that are well under 15 minutes so I'm sure compelling stories can be told in that time. Just think of the old Twilight Zone episodes.

 

[Philip Guyott]

Pacific 201 will still be able to continue under new guidelines:

"The new fan film guidelines certainly limit exactly how we wanted to tell the Pacific 201 story, but we are committed to making this a virtue for our film. We're confident that Pacific 201 will survive and thrive within these guidelines (even if it's a little shorter and more to-the-point than we intended)!"

Also 'Ambush' have said that they will most likely make a two part self contained story:

"Ambush will still happen, the point of the project was to tell a story I had and introduce a new crew. The guidelines will still allow me to do that... ...Ambush was always intended to have a running time of approximately 20 minutes, it's looking like it would be more like 30 minutes, so “Ambush” may well be a 2 part self contained story."

 

[arch101]

If so many people are willing to put up all kinds of time and $$$ to make Trek productions, then the studio is not meeting demand.
People seem to want more Trek than a movie every 3-4 years.
Maybe the new series will meet some of this demand.

 

[Amaris]

If so many people are willing to put up all kinds of time and $$$ to make Trek productions, then the studio is not meeting demand.
People seem to want more Trek than a movie every 3-4 years.
Maybe the new series will meet some of this demand.

That's absurdity. Just because it's not enough for you doesn't mean you can just toss the rules aside. If there was a movie made every year, with a TV series on right now, there would still be fan productions. The studio can only meet so much demand anyway. There are people who are antsy for the next Marvel films, and that damned studio is flooding the movie theater with their works. What a silly yardstick by which to measure the studio and decide you have the right to steal their property.

 

[spockboy]

 

[USS Intrepid]

CBS is saying that if you don't deviate from these, they won't bug you.

They're not promising to pursue anyone who violates one or more of these to the ends of the Earth in every circumstance.

In future, however, when they feel it's necessary to snap someone back they need only point to these and explain "You broke rule #3, which we made entirely clear and published back in June of 2016."

I had exactly the same thought.

 

[Philip Guyott]

'Raven' are changing their name from 'Star Trek Raven' to 'Trekstar Raven'. Somehow I don't think that will work!

 

[Amaris]

'Raven' are changing their name from 'Star Trek Raven' to 'Trekstar Raven'. Somehow I don't think that will work!

We'll call it "Blazing Ball of Gas Burning Billions of Miles Away Journey!"

"BRILLIANT!"

 

[Maurice]

Again, I blame Peters and his cronies and their arrogant behavior for causing the hammer to fall finally, but as I stated upthread, this crackdown has been inevitable since fan filmmakers kept pushing the boundaries, and sooner or later someone was going to push it too far. At first I thought it was going to be Renegades with their baloney "pilot" talk, but once Axanar's shenanigans registered on my radar I knew they were going to be the one trigger the crackdown, and I flat out called it.

$50K sounds low when we've all become accustomed to 6-figure Kickstarters, but a number of good fanfilms have been made for south of that number, including, I suspect, a number of NV segments (admittedly they have a lot of standing sets). I can tell you for sure that even adjusted for inflation Exeter's second episode cost well under $50K. You can do a lot with that kind of money if you're smart. $50K to make a 15 minute film? Sign me up!

 

[Amaris]

Again, I blame Peters and his cronies and their arrogant behavior for causing the hammer to fall finally, but as I stated upthread, this crackdown has been inevitable since fan filmmakers kept pushing the boundaries, and sooner or later someone was going to push it too far. At first I thought it was going to be Renegades with their baloney "pilot" talk, but once Axanar's shenanigans registered on my radar I knew they were going to be the one trigger the crackdown, and I flat out called it.

$50K sounds low when we've all become accustomed to 6-figure Kickstarters, but a number of good fanfilms have been made for south of that number, including, I suspect, a number of NV segments (admittedly they have a lot of standing sets). I can tell you for sure that even adjusted for inflation Exeter's second episode cost well under $50K. You can do a lot with that kind of money if you're smart. $50K to make a 15 minute film? Sign me up!

Exeter had a great story to go along with it, too, which is why I fell in love with it. It could have been cardboard sets and I would have liked it.

 

[BillJ]

If so many people are willing to put up all kinds of time and $$$ to make Trek productions, then the studio is not meeting demand.

And? That isn't up to you to decide how much product CBS needs or should make. It is their property. If you are unhappy, scrape together a couple billion dollars and buy the IP.

 

[BillJ]

Again, I blame Peters and his cronies and their arrogant behavior for causing the hammer to fall finally, but as I stated upthread, this crackdown has been inevitable since fan filmmakers kept pushing the boundaries, and sooner or later someone was going to push it too far. At first I thought it was going to be Renegades with their baloney "pilot" talk, but once Axanar's shenanigans registered on my radar I knew they were going to be the one trigger the crackdown, and I flat out called it.

$50K sounds low when we've all become accustomed to 6-figure Kickstarters, but a number of good fanfilms have been made for south of that number, including, I suspect, a number of NV segments (admittedly they have a lot of standing sets). I can tell you for sure that even adjusted for inflation Exeter's second episode cost well under $50K. You can do a lot with that kind of money if you're smart. $50K to make a 15 minute film? Sign me up!

I watched The Tressaurian Intersection with my nine-year old son the other day. He enjoyed it very much. Hats off again to the Exeter group.

 

[Maurice]

re Exeter the Johnson brothers were very cognizant of trying not to step on Paramount's toes back in the day. That's one reason the title contains Starship and not Star Trek, one reason why no one wears the flying-A insignia, and why they never distributed DVDs for donations, etc. The only "perks" were a DVD of the "Making of" films (yes, yes, I know, Jimm still hasn't sent out the discs for the one for TTI, but I know for a fact it's finished). Once Kickstarter type sites showed up that pushed many fan filmmakers into some dangerous territory with their need to provides "perks" and "rewards" which quickly start to look like merchandise. "Donations" which net you a DVD or BluRay as a reward are basically selling the films commercially.

 

[Danlav05]

With FX it was going to be about 24 minutes. We have to reevaluate and shorten a few of our FX scenes. Either that or we break it up into two videos which is really something I would rather not do. Time will tell.

You have to keep Sulu. That's the whole point of interest for the film in the first place!

 

[Jam3s1701]

CBS is saying that if you don't deviate from these, they won't bug you.

They're not promising to pursue anyone who violates one or more of these to the ends of the Earth in every circumstance.

In future, however, when they feel it's necessary to snap someone back they need only point to these and explain "You broke rule #3, which we made entirely clear and published back in June of 2016."

That doesn't mean that you can see how far to push before they act though.

 

[tomalak301]

I've been reading the facebook reaction to this and my first thought was looks like a lot of people might be jumping off the Star Trek bandwagon with the new Fan Film guidelines. Anyone remember when a fan film was something you did with friends in a backyard and you didn't ask for money from the fans to just cast it?

Amazing how big of a story this was and how, maybe, jaded (?) people are with the current state of Star Trek at the moment.

 

[QuantumMechanic]

" I don't see how they're going to be able to even KEEP those sets. Carrying costs for stage rental, electricity, etc. are tens of thousands of dollars per year. The new rules say that a production cannot spend more than $50,000. Those lovely standing sets may not be standing too much longer"

The guidelines don't specify a $50K expense limit. They specify a $50K crowdfunding fundraising limit.

 

[Maurice]

I think any people who are "jumping off the Star Trek bandwagon" over this are a bunch of crybabies who refuse to acknowledge that there's a line between fannish expression and ownership.