CBS/Paramount sues to stop Axanar

[muCephi]

"And then JJ said what a brilliant suggestion, where have you been all through the reboot? And Shatner agreed!"

[... and we are all so charmed and so uninformed !!! ... and have so many millions of online fans who will troll you when we realize you are not our peer, have the wrath of our industry, and elbowed into our gig like you did with BSG... ]

 

[muCephi]

Like this one

2016 Parsec Award Finalists
Podcast Title

Best Podcast about Speculative Fiction Content Creation [CC]

Literary Treks Matthew Rushing & Dan Gunther
Axanar: The Official Podcast Robert Meyer Burnett & Alec Peters
Archer & Armstrong: The Production Journals Pendant Productions
The Journeyman Writer Alastair Stephens
The Round Table Podcast Dave Robison

They will destroy their award reputation if they cite a podcast filled with so much explicitly stated contempt for stars, fans, directors, industry players, and basically everyone except team Axanar.

 

[Mr. Nova]

They won't do that because they want any s/j motion to win (otherwise, why make it at all?).

So, Earl Stanley Garner (Perry Mason) got it wrong? Another childhood myth shot to hell! (My Mom and Grandma LOVED Perry Mason.)

 

[dmac]

They will destroy their award reputation if they cite a podcast filled with so much explicitly stated contempt for stars, fans, directors, industry players, and basically everyone except team Axanar.

Don't for a minute think Peters spent $100,000 or to date $1.3 million into creating a 20 minute Star Trek production. I don't care what his books say, that's a $10,000 dollar production tops, closer to a $2,000 production by an established studio that didn't have to invest in a camera and a piece of green cloth. Everything over that is for one thing, self promotion. You waste donor's money hiring known actors, top VXF work, pumping money into a morphodite non functional studio, it s for only one purpose, Self promotion.
The beauty of it all is the donor, con someone out of $20 bucks and they have rose colored glasses super glued to their head. Con 20,000 people and you have foot soldiers singing the praises of every tweet you make. The guy thinks he is some hero named Garth, well look again he's nothing better than a Harcourt Fenton Mudd.

 

[Sgt_G]

Shut up and take my money, Alec!

Has it gotten to the point that you have to pay someone to make them shut up and go away?

 

[carlosp]

"And then JJ said what a brilliant suggestion, where have you been all through the reboot? And Shatner agreed!"

[... and we are all so charmed and so uninformed !!! ... and have so many millions of online fans who will troll you when we realize you are not our peer, have the wrath of our industry, and elbowed into our gig like you did with BSG... ]

One of the conference participants posted Alec Peters' comments on YouTube. Feel free to add your comments to mine there.

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[oswriter]

"And then JJ said what a brilliant suggestion, where have you been all through the reboot? And Shatner agreed!"

[... and we are all so charmed and so uninformed !!! ... and have so many millions of online fans who will troll you when we realize you are not our peer, have the wrath of our industry, and elbowed into our gig like you did with BSG... ]

"Hi, I'm Alec Peters. You might remember me from such 'Star Trek' fan films as 'The Undiscovered Donor Store' and '50 Ways to Get Subpoenaed on Romulus.'"

 

[Sgt_G]

"Now we find ourselves in every major publication" ... for all the wrong reasons. None of them would care about your "little fan film" had it not been for the fact you waaay oversteps the boundaries and got yourself sued.

 

[muCephi]

One of the conference participants posted Alec Peters' comments on YouTube. Feel free to add your comments to mine there.

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This appears to be only an answer to a question. Right after this the moderator says "we have time for one more question". I would imagine Alec got to speak more. He talked about Axanar as "we" without really giving any background, so this also makes me think he had a main presentation. Hope the whole conference comes up somewhere.

As far as his comments here, they all smiled when he talked about getting 1.2 million, and about 'not having to ask your relative for it'. I.E., not because of any demonstration that his arguments or filmmaking efforts are notable.

Spoke at facebook hq? No of course not. That implies he spoke to FB staff and management. This audience for the most part would have just said 'huh?' to him being there.

I note he said he spoke to some filmmakers recently (really? with what credentials is he presenting himself?) and told them all you need to make great films is in your back pocket on your phone.

So one can kinda see what is going on here. Trying to sell himself into the world as a visionary of new media whose first effort got derailed by the big business interests he threatened. Mouthing platitudes that were insights many years ago. Pulling the 'I made a million on crowdfunding' card out as entre to everything. Become a minor celebrity on the business auteurs circuit. Hope you can keep your donor funded studio and put out something that becomes your new history.

 

[Sgt_G]

He talked about using Red cameras for the project and said they cost $20K - $30K each. I looked them up. "Red" is the brand name, and the base model 4k "Raven" camera in $6,500. You can get a fully decked out kit with mounts and lenses for under $12,500. If they spent $20K+ per camera, they got the mid-range 6k "Scarlet". Red brand are high-end and priced accordingly. You can get a decent Canon 4K camera for about $2,000, and there are other very nice 4K cameras in the $3,500 range, under $5,000 fully loaded.

If you're doing a "fan film" for YouTube, why do you need a 4k camera to begin with? As he said, standard HD cameras do very nicely. The top-of-the-line GoPro cameras with all the extra doodads are well under a thousand bucks, and that's what Discover Channel uses to shoot Deadliest Catch and Naked & Afraid. If a GoPro is good enough for them, why's it not good enough for a fan-film? But even if you do plan to show the film on a big screen someplace, like a sci-fi convention, why do you "need" a 6k Red camera?? Get a nice 4k not-Red-brand camera for a-tenth the cost.

As far as his comments here, they all smiled when he talked about getting 1.2 million, and about 'not having to ask your relative for it'.

Yeah, they were probably thinking, "I just spent that much last week on a feasibility study for a minor project."

he spoke to some filmmakers recently (really? with what credentials is he presenting himself?)

I was wondering that myself.

 

[JD]

The guy in the yellow jacket on the end was really looking like he wished Peters would just shut up.
It is kind of aggravating to see him up there bragging about everything he did, but completely ignoring how much trouble he's gotten himself into by doing it.

Does anyone know how big of a deal the people he was up there with were? Were these big name people making huge budget blockbuster, or just small up and comers?
If it's the former then him bragging about Axanar is pretty hilarious, when these people are probably making 10s or 100s of times what he did.

 

[Firebird]

Peters telling people to just use their phones and go out and make a movie is rich. Maybe if he'd followed his own advice, he'd never have gotten sued in the first place.

 

[Harvey]

If you're doing a "fan film" for YouTube, why do you need a 4k camera to begin with? As he said, standard HD cameras do very nicely.

Even if they wanted to use a top of the line camera, why on earth would they buy one? Why not use one of the equipment rental houses here in Los Angeles? That has to be a much more cost-effective option for a 2-3 week shoot, especially when your funds are finite and you want to put as much money on screen as possible.

Buying a camera doesn't even make sense for Peters' studio business. The actual Hollywood studios rely on rented cameras and equipment all the time. Captain America might need 25 cameras, but the romantic comedy they're filming after it won't. And, in either case, camera technology is always changing -- those pro cameras that Peters bought over a year ago are already out of date.

It sounds like he just wanted another toy, bought for him by the fans.

 

[oswriter]

Peters telling people to just use their phones and go out and make a movie is rich. Maybe if he'd followed his own advice, he'd never have gotten sued in the first place.

At this point, I assume he's trying to lose the lawsuit.

 

[carlosp]

He's sweating profusely in that picture. Make of that what you will.

That's actually not sweat. It's the shadow cast by the microphone. You'll see it in the video.

 

[muCephi]

Even if they wanted to use a top of the line camera, why on earth would they buy one? Why not use one of the equipment rental houses here in Los Angeles? That has to be a much more cost-effective option for a 2-3 week shoot, especially when your funds are finite and you want to put as much money on screen as possible.

Buying a camera doesn't even make sense for Peters' studio business. The actual Hollywood studios rely on rented cameras and equipment all the time. Captain America might need 25 cameras, but the romantic comedy they're filming after it won't. And, in either case, camera technology is always changing -- those pro cameras that Peters bought over a year ago are already out of date.

It sounds like he just wanted another toy, bought for him by the fans.

Buying makes sense if your plan all along was to skim off a healthy percent of the donations to buy your future studio assets. Lock the cash in while you can.

Does anyone know how big of a deal the people he was up there with were? Were these big name people making huge budget blockbuster, or just small up and comers?
If it's the former then him bragging about Axanar is pretty hilarious, when these people are probably making 10s or 100s of times what he did.

moderator:
Kimberly Katina Williams
Kimberly is the public affairs officer at NASA. She has been associated with the organization in various roles since the last sixteen years.

panelists: as per program, not ordered as per seating:

Shalini Govil-Pai Senior Director and Global Head for Product Solutions at YouTube/Google. Her role in the organization is to drive the success of Global Youtube partners in the entertainment.

"Sandy Carter - IBM" (no bio on FOG site) from LinkedIn: General Manager - Ecosystems, Business Development, Digital Marketing https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandyacarter

"Conor Garrity - NBC Universal" (no bio on FOG site) from linkedIn: Sr. Producer at NBC Universal https://www.linkedin.com/in/conorgarrity

Shashank Vaishnav
Shashank is Co-founder & CTO of WittyFeed.com. Spearheading the technical operations, Shashank kick started his entrepreneurial journey during his first year of college in 2010.

"Gulshan Grover - Bollywood actor" (no bio on FOG site) from Wikipedia: Gulshan Grover (born 21 September 1955) is an Indianactor who has appeared in over 400 films. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulshan_Grover

"Raima Sen - Bollywood actress" (no bio) from Wikipedia: Raima Sen (born Raima Dev Varma on 7 November 1979[1]) is an Indian film actress who primarily appears in Bengali films. Her performances have been acclaimed critically on more than one occasion. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raima_Sen

Prosenjit Chatterjee's
The Biggest Star of Bengali Film Industry and a notable speaker on Media and Entertainment. He is bringing Tollywood to Silicon Valley.

"Prashantt Guptha - Bollywood actor" (no bio on FOG site) according to TImes of India, an up and coming actor http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...has-career-takes-off/articleshow/51194093.cmss . FILMS: http://www.prashanttguptha.com/films.php

"Alec Peters - Hollywood actor and producer" - (no bio on FOG site) one talking head stolen IP featurette, resulting in a lawsuit from some of the largest industry players, a precedent setting potential misuse of crowdsourcing for personal benefit which might draw attention of government regulators. And a string of bankruptcies.

------------

like I said, when we panelists come to realize how you punked us, our millions of fans will come visit you.

Actually, though, I think they will just blow it off. Self proclaimed gurus are everywhere in India.

And note, it looks like all the USA-based professionals are no shows. Maybe even the moderator, since the guy on the left of the panel was taking the questions.

The guy on the right end looks like Gulshan Grover.

OF COURSE, this may not be of the main panel event as listed above. But the people on stage do seem to match some of the people in this list, if you see their pictures.

 

[Professor Zoom]

He talked about using Red cameras for the project and said they cost $20K - $30K each. I looked them up. "Red" is the brand name, and the base model 4k "Raven" camera in $6,500. You can get a fully decked out kit with mounts and lenses for under $12,500. If they spent $20K+ per camera, they got the mid-range 6k "Scarlet". Red brand are high-end and priced accordingly. You can get a decent Canon 4K camera for about $2,000, and there are other very nice 4K cameras in the $3,500 range, under $5,000 fully loaded.

If you're doing a "fan film" for YouTube, why do you need a 4k camera to begin with? As he said, standard HD cameras do very nicely. The top-of-the-line GoPro cameras with all the extra doodads are well under a thousand bucks, and that's what Discover Channel uses to shoot Deadliest Catch and Naked & Afraid. If a GoPro is good enough for them, why's it not good enough for a fan-film? But even if you do plan to show the film on a big screen someplace, like a sci-fi convention, why do you "need" a 6k Red camera?? Get a nice 4k not-Red-brand camera for a-tenth the cost.

Yeah, they were probably thinking, "I just spent that much last week on a feasibility study for a minor project."

I was wondering that myself.

None of the financial decisions Peters and Co made were sound. All across the board, they used the donor money VERY poorly. Why sign a lease on a warehouse for three years to shoot a fan film? Why not RENT a soundstage? As someone else said: why BUY a camera when you can rent from a shit ton of places in LA?

Every production, be it the 10K dollar to the 100 million dollar production tries to stretch it's money--that's smart producing. You don't waste it like Peters has done. You don't buy when you can rent.

 

[Harvey]

Buying makes sense if your plan all along was to skim off a healthy percent of the donations to buy your future studio assets. Lock the cash in while you can.

Even if that were the case (and I believe it was), I would argue that it still doesn't make sense to drop all that money on an expensive camera. It would be smarter to invest in long-term infrastructure than it would in equipment with a short-term shelf life. Like I said, there's a reason even the major studios use rental houses rather than buying all their equipment.

 

[muCephi]

Even if that were the case (and I believe it was), I would argue that it still doesn't make sense to drop all that money on an expensive camera. It would be smarter to invest in long-term infrastructure than it would in equipment with a short-term shelf life. Like I said, there's a reason even the major studios use rental houses rather than buying all their equipment.

Totally agree. I was channeling the spendthrift mentality of Axanar for a moment. And I suppose they may have thought that more overt expenditures on purely long term items not needed immediately would be more obvious to donors.

 

[Harvey]

Honestly, when you see the way Peters has spent the money on this so-called production (all that's missing is the movie!), it's no surprise he's been in bankruptcy court before. I've seen no indication that he knows anything about sensibly running a business.

Come to think of it, how did Propworx go belly up? I'm at a loss explaining where all the money went, especially since Peters was making extra money on top by overcharging on freight.