I thought it was pretty good. But as always with fan films some will like it, some won't. I think it's just as well that he didn't make the sequel. I think he's talented enough to do quite well with original material.
CBS/Paramount sues to stop Axanar 2 - Electric Boogaloo-Fanboys gone WILD-too many hyphens
- Thread starter jespah
- Start date
There are professional actors in Horizon.
As someone who makes fanfilms, I do not believe the studio has any interest in stopping fanfilms. I believe the guidelines exist so they can step in when and where they need to, not so they can stop genuine fans having fun.
How many fanfilms have been shut down or sued since the guidelines dropped? I’ll give you a clue; it rhymes with hero.
As someone who makes fanfilms, I do not believe the studio has any interest in stopping fanfilms. I believe the guidelines exist so they can step in when and where they need to, not so they can stop genuine fans having fun.
How many fanfilms have been shut down or sued since the guidelines dropped? I’ll give you a clue; it rhymes with hero.
That is very interesting. Good to know. I’ll make sure to be on the lookout
Yeah I can definitely agree with that. Some people are only good with sequels Unfortunately.
Making own uniforms for a fan film. What a crazy idea when you can get them made for a reasonable fee in Italy...
30 minutes is more than enough time to tell a good story. Most of my favorite short films are 15 minutes or less. The issue is that telling a good story in that time requires better writing and directing skills than a lot of fan films have. In my opinion, a lot of episodes of NV and Continues would have been better if they were cut down by about 10 minutes. More =/= better.
It is clear you were not following fan films that closely. Many if not most fan films could not be confused with real trek but that was not all fan films.
While I think peters was the final catalyst for the guidelines to come out IMO it wasn't only on him. Even without Peters I think we'd still have some version of the fan film guidelines.
Here is the problem. There was an "arms race" going on between a lot of fan films. Films kept raising a lot more money every time creating spcial effects and production qualities that were getting close to rivilaing what some TV shows could do. Then the kicker was when they started to bring in old trek actions playing their old trek characters. There was one productin that was a feature film length with MULTIPLE trek actors playing their characters and raised a ton of money. Productions like that could be confused with real trek. In fact, I've seen some TV news reports that have used for trek stock footage footage from fan films and whoever put it together likely didn't know it was from a fan film.
There were a few productions that kept trying to one-up each other and were coming very very close to the line. Even without Alec taking a disintegratior to the line, I think some form of guidelines was inevitable. The current state of affairs could not continue like it was even without Peters. It may have taken a year or two longer without Peters but I think they were going to happen regardless. Peters was the worst but he wasn't the only one that was involved in fan films reallly bleeding the line between an amateur production and a professional production. The former CBS is fine with.. the second they are not.
CBS stepped in when it became clear that AP was ripping off Trek fans all the while boosting that he was producing a PROFESSIONAL independent Star Trek film which was completely unlicensed. When he raised and spent over 1.5 million of fans money on a self-proclaimed for profit studio, spent fans money on personal expenses, etc, the studio had to step in and stop it. The guidelines are very fair and allow fans to continue to create their own Trek adventures without crossing the line as Alec Peters and Axanar did (and are trying to continue to do).
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We have a whole thread full of awesome films which are short enough to fit in the guidelines. Memorable cinema doesn't have to be long. See: https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/the-fan-filmmakers-film-reference-vault.293914/
This! Alec took advantage, its a s simple as that.
As for the time limits in the guidelines, it is also to prevent someone from producing a fan series. STC was able to finish their series because it was already under a degree of production when the guidelines came out. Renegades planed to have at least 12 episodes at the time, but had to scrap that idea when the guidelines came out,
I think renegades had a lot to do with the time limit. STC and so forth looked like 60s shows (intentionally) but some newer productiions like Prelude and renegades looked like a current SF series which was problematic. CBS/P didn't want a fan star trek ongoing series that looked like a modern TV show. That was a step too far and something they had to make sure didn't happen (especially if it also invovled old trek actors playing the same roles). So that got us things like the time limit, the nobody who worked in star trek can be involved, etc.
The issue is: There IS a way to legally create Star trek content and get in on the game - GET A LICENSE FROM CBS.
^^^
If CBS just lets any group who wants to - make a Star Trek film/comic, etc. (and Mr. Peters has done both and was trying to get an author to agree to do an unlicensed Book) - it can end up hurting them in any rel negotiation ("Hey, you're letting fans get away with paying nothing and doing what they like, why do we really need to pay X $ with all this market dilution?")
Hell, (and again) the Star Trek fan film guidelines are LESS stringent then the ones for Star Wars fan films; and hell there are MANY IPs where they will clamp down on ANYONE doing anything with a C&D order or a civil suit.
Alec Peters isn't some 'poor fan who just wants to make a Star Trek fan film" - he's been supplementing his income with the Kickstarter and Gofundme campaigns and TRIED AND FAILD to start his own personal film studio with $2 MILLION of said 'pledges'. Hell, I'd love to be able to fund my bussiness plan withjout either:
a) Having a real plan in place.
b) getting money from fans of a popular IP by CLAIMING to want to dom a film based on said IP, but rather funneling it into my startup and not having to pay interest, etc.
^^^
This is WHY CBS had to take action. Mr. Peters made $2 million that he used for his own personal expenses and strtup business expenses.
Star Trek is NOT in the public domain. CBS has every right to se a return on money/time invested in producing Star Trek content. They are the ones who OWN the IP.
There was that Darth Vader fan film a while ago that Disney had Youtube monetize with all of the money going to them instead of the filmmaker, then there are studios like TOHO who will frequently issue takedown notices to videos that use any clips from their movies. CBS has been extremely lenient compared to most other studios.
Wow didn’t know that I guess I just really watching only the really amateur fan film ones. Although I think I have seen one or two with former trek actors. I guess after hearing that I can understand why they did it. And after hearing that I probably would’ve done the same Thing cbs did. You know something I watch prelude axanar. Another think about it it definitely looks like a professional even though it really is not. Oh no I’m just wondering what are they going to do when the romulan war gets released. It’s a fan film that is basically documentary style about the earth Romulan. For them to make it work it Hass to be more than 30 minutes. Although they’ve been doing this for a long time now, before the guidelines were in acted so I’m sure they can reach an agreement with CBS. I watched a fan film last night that they started production several years before so CBS gave them a special agreement.
I’m just glad that the Orville changed enough stuff on their show to differ it from Star Trek, so that way it’s classified as a parody, that so that they don’t violate copyright.
Because even humor takes a while to get used to it’s pretty good.
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I never said he was innocent I was just thinking about other people who were making films that had no malicious intent.
Axanar did reach an agreement with cbs. It’s called a court setttlement. That is all they are getting. 30 minutes in their limit.
I think everybody here will agreee that the fan films that went too far led by peters ruined things for the fan films who were doing it right. It’s a shame. However cbs was left with no other option.
CBS is not going to make an agreement with any unlicensed fan film: period. That would open-up a pandoras box of problems for CBS; which films do you allow and which do you enforce? The agreement with CBS is the guidelines they put-out; no grandfathering or other understanding is implied. Fan film makers can choose to follow the guidelines or if they do not; they risk enforcement by CBS. That is the agreement from CBS, nothing else regardless of when the fan-film was started matters.
Hiring pro Trek actors is nothing new. New Voyages did it early in their run with "To Serve All My Days". There was just more and more of it happening. Of Gods and Men anyone?
Renegades was not innocent in this. There were a lot of claims flying around that they were making a "pilot", which implied they were sanctioned by CBS, which they weren't. If Peters didn't go as far and offer such an easy target I daresay Renegades might've been the subject of a suit. One suit was enough for CBS to send the message loud and clear, so they went after the biggest, loudest, most obnoxious offender.
Renegades was not innocent in this. There were a lot of claims flying around that they were making a "pilot", which implied they were sanctioned by CBS, which they weren't. If Peters didn't go as far and offer such an easy target I daresay Renegades might've been the subject of a suit. One suit was enough for CBS to send the message loud and clear, so they went after the biggest, loudest, most obnoxious offender.
It wasn't Disney, it was a third party that owned the licence to distribute Star Wars music that made a claim on the movie. LucasFilm helped to reverse that claim. All is well now.