I think the term "financial report" is kind of a misnomer. The people reading this aren't IRS auditors or accountants. It's donors who probably know just as little about accounting as he does. They just want to feel that their money was spent wisely and nobody was exploiting the situation. And according to the wording of the report, he felt every expenditure other than damaging the dolly was justified in order to pull off the quality they were after. I wouldn't assume he doesn't have all receipts handy to be able to produce a more detailed report later if requested. I just wouldn't assume that what's present here is the best he can possibly do.
CBS/Paramount sues to stop Axanar
- Thread starter Richard Baker
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I think the term "financial report" is kind of a misnomer. The people reading this aren't IRS auditors or accountants. It's donors who probably know just as little about accounting as he does. They just want to feel that their money was spent wisely and nobody was exploiting the situation. And according to the wording of the report, he felt every expenditure other than damaging the dolly was justified in order to pull off the quality they were after. I wouldn't assume he doesn't have all receipts handy to be able to produce a more detailed report later if requested. I just wouldn't assume that what's present here is the best he can possibly do.
These points are all well taken. But I still have one question: Why didn't Peters hire an accountant to do this report for him? The report indicates he's only now consulting with an accountant to prepare tax filings. If you're raising upwards of $1 million, shouldn't the accountant already be in place and able to prepare your reports?
Regardless of what anyone on the Axanar side of things say, the project's dead as a doornail.
Whilst I‘m kind of enjoying the fuss and have no sympathy whatsoever (if fact, if they take the other fanfilm groups down with them, exactly the opposite), I'd have liked to have seen the damned thing.
What do you think the chances of the script leaking are, someone writing it up as fanfic, or even another group making it, maybe animated or as an audio drama ?
Whilst I‘m kind of enjoying the fuss and have no sympathy whatsoever (if fact, if they take the other fanfilm groups down with them, exactly the opposite), I'd have liked to have seen the damned thing.
What do you think the chances of the script leaking are, someone writing it up as fanfic, or even another group making it, maybe animated or as an audio drama ?
Two things I watched recently are now reminding me of this situation.
1.) The Simpsons - I'm watching the episode with the Good Guy Awards right now. Krusty comes out and sings the first line of a song then stops midlyric. He screams "Stop the music. We sing one more word we have to pay for the whole song!"
2.) DS9: Way of the Warrior - The Battle of DS9 reminds me of this too. The Klingon Fleet is attacking DS9 and reinforcements arrive. The only problem for Axanar is the reinforcement in this situation are the lawyers...
1.) The Simpsons - I'm watching the episode with the Good Guy Awards right now. Krusty comes out and sings the first line of a song then stops midlyric. He screams "Stop the music. We sing one more word we have to pay for the whole song!"
2.) DS9: Way of the Warrior - The Battle of DS9 reminds me of this too. The Klingon Fleet is attacking DS9 and reinforcements arrive. The only problem for Axanar is the reinforcement in this situation are the lawyers...
Next to nothing.
Oh, a draft of it will get leaked. I guarantee it!
Funny, I haven't been able to get the darn "Monorail" song out of my head since this whole thing began.
"I've sold Star Trek fan films to Brockaway, Ogdenville, and North Haverbrook, and by gum, it put them on the map!"
If the script leaked (Is it even finished?) I don't see any other production touching it with a ten-feet pole. That would be just asking for CBS and Paramount to come down hard on them.
Scripts always leak. Heck, I remember buying the "Generations" script at a con in '94 three months before the movie came out.
Sorry, I meant getting made into a fanfic or some other production taking up Axanar.
I'm surprised that the script hasn't already leaked.
Did he use the donor's money for the dinner? I understand meeting with Todd to get him to do the movie could be a production expense, but I question if it's really appropriate use of the fans money, unless it was specifically stated before hand that some of it would go to things like that. I'm not sure if I'd be real happy if I gave someone money to make a movie and found out they used to take someone out to dinner. If you make sure it's understood that the money might be used for things not directly part of the production like that, cool, but if I give money to make a movie, I'm only going to want it to go to the movie itself.
I see that and raise you:
"What production company is this Star Trek fanfilm from?"
"It no longer exists"
Based on this report, Axanar's only source of income is the Kickstarter funds, so that would mean everything spent came from the donors.
Incidentally, I was discussing the Axanar situation with a friend who happens to be a finance executive at a large organization, and her first question to me was, "Have they ever needed real, proper financing? I'm talking about an actual business loan from a financial institution, which requires real financials."
A good question. The report says nothing about such financing but one would assume Peters isn't going to rely entirely on Kickstarter funds to grow Ares Studios.
Coincidentally a few days ago I mentioned that CBS should just order a book about The Battle of Axanar from Simon and Schuster.
They beat me to it: Garth of Izar.
They beat me to it: Garth of Izar.
There's also a discussion of Axanar and Garth, albeit a brief one, in a more recent licensed book, as I discussed on the blog today.
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