CBS/Paramount sues to stop Axanar
- Thread starter Richard Baker
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Therein lies the problem in a nutshell.
424 pages...
If this thread were the monster of the week on X-Files, Mulder and Scully would have killed it in a pool of acid and launched the entire pool into the Sun by now. Unfortunately, it's more like a Borg episode on Star Trek and everyone has been assimilated.
If this thread were the monster of the week on X-Files, Mulder and Scully would have killed it in a pool of acid and launched the entire pool into the Sun by now. Unfortunately, it's more like a Borg episode on Star Trek and everyone has been assimilated.
If i'm a fan-film-maker and I suddenly find myself making money the first thing I do is call up Paramount/CBS and be open and honest with them. I'm sure they'd find a way to make the situation work, and they probably would appreciate my honesty and forthrightness.
Maybe I agree to give the profits to the studio or even to charity, or worst case we stop production and refund people's money and cut our losses.
But what I don't do is go back to kickstarter and ask fans for more money.
Maybe I agree to give the profits to the studio or even to charity, or worst case we stop production and refund people's money and cut our losses.
But what I don't do is go back to kickstarter and ask fans for more money.
^^^^
That's EXACTLY what you do - It's called negotiating for a LICENSE. Here's the thing though: Paramount/CBS isn't required to grant you one; and if they do not, that's NOT an invitation to go off and market products for the IP you are attempting to license. The IP holder has the right t control WHO it grants a license to; and it's HOW they make a profit with said IP.
Actually, negotiating for a license is something entirely different than what I was talking about. Negotiating for a license would be done before doing any filming. What i'm trying to express is that if a fan-film inadvertently starts making money, the best thing to do is to just ask CBS/Paramount what to do--- if for no other reason than to protect yourself from litigation.
How does one inadvertently make money with a fanfilm?
Jesus. You click on it, and there's a donate button. At least the Indie Go Go campaign is closed. But, DAMN, the move is listed as "the ground-breaking independent Star Trek film." Not fan film. Independent Star Trek.
Idiots.
You know what's ground breaking? What it means for the rest of fan films.
The thing is AP would of had to negotiate not just one license but two. Axanar's story elements come from the TV series, but is also intended in movie format. It would seem hard enough to get one but two is unlikely. So he must of knew the chances were slim for both companies to say yes. So it was better for him to produce something first, as a proof of concept. I believe that was Prelude... Now at this point, this is where AP messed up. He could of gotten away with Prelude without a license IMO, but at that point, his ambition of growing Axanar into a major franchise got the better of him. Before his second donation campaign, he should of went to CBS/Paramount to discuss some licensing deal using Prelude as his proof of concept, it would of increased his chances. If successful he could of run several Kickstarter and Indiegogo campaigns without any problems. His downfall was not his early success, but his arrogance generated from it.
"Axanar feels like Star Trek because it is made by two of the biggest Star Trek fans in the world..."
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"must of knew"... "could of." snicker.
First, do you really think a fan film-maker could ever negotiate a license with a studio? It would never happen. There'd have to be a fundamental shift in the entertainment business. Seriously, the idea that Paramount or CBS would license a fan film the rights to Star Trek some of the dumb shit that Axanar supporters spout. Some even went so far as to contend that doing so "would be smart and forward thinking."
As far as how someone inadvertently makes money from a fan film, it's quite simple, and it's been covered on every other page on this 245 page thread: you crowdfund, fully expecting to use every dime you raise, but raise more than you end up needing, and don't know what to do with the rest. It could be an overage of $5, $5,000 or $500,000. Either way, it's profit.
In fact, a lot of people here contend that this is what happened with Axanar, perhaps even as early as Prelude. Some people have argued that they went in with the best of intentions but raised more than they needed, and rather than refund the overages, they concocted a way to pocket the extra money while saying it was being spent (or spending it on things that weren't truly necessary-- like the formation of a studio for future use, or paying off the rent of property used by their other business).
I'm fairly certain about 2-3 different posters were making this very argument just a page or two ago.
It saddens me how many people actually fell for this stuff.
I could see donating the first time, when Axanar was suppose to be a $100,000 dollar fan film. But when they netted $600,000, then started going on about needing three more fundraisers to make the movie, a Red Alert should've been going off in the minds of those that already donated once or were thinking about jumping in.
A wise man once said... "The road to hell is often paved with good intentions" and that's why we are were we are when it comes to this entire Axanar mess... It might of started out as an honest attempt at a big budget fan film, but then morphed into "Let's make our own franchise" Axanar The T-Shirt, Axanar The Lunch Box, and so forth and so on, then Para/CBS took notice and said "I DON'T THINK SO SPANKY" and then boom, LAWSUIT.
400+ pages later - Still waiting on the trial to happen, should be, enlightening to say the least ;-)
400+ pages later - Still waiting on the trial to happen, should be, enlightening to say the least ;-)
The way this has been developing it's become rather evident this was never about bringing a great fan film to fans, this was about Alec Peters becoming a Hollywood hot shot producer.
I can't speak to his original intention when he was trying to raise $100k to make Axanar. But the success of that first Kickstarter definitely went to his head.
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