CBS/Paramount sues to stop Axanar
- Thread starter Richard Baker
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The sunk cost fallacy/gambler's fallacy. I. e. "I've put a bunch of coins in, so this slot machine is bound to pay off sometime! Maybe if I put in just one more coin ...."
So, when the lease is up will he walk away or renew? Place your bets, folks, place your best right here.
agreed. Unless he can finish the studio and start at least breaking even from rentals... Better hurry up, donors! Peters needs some upgrades!
He's has to finish Axanar. How else is he going to get people to watch the "I've Been Persecuted" doc that he wants to include on the DVD?
Remember, if Alec admits to ANY wrongdoing, he opens himself up to legal action from the donors or Kickstarter. So he never will.
Saw that on Diana 1.0's Facebook profile - probably the name of a production company LFIM created to somehow keep the studio alive.
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I've seen that Rocketworx name before, it's been in use for some time. I'm sure @carlosp is familiar with it.
Can't see how this math even makes sense when you're TRYING to fluff the numbers, much less if it was for real.
Hell, I'll even double their imaginary number and say it costs 30k/month to rent a suitable studio. They instead signed a 3-year lease for a $180k/year studio, $540k over 3 years, PLUS had (?) to spend hundreds of thousands upgrading it to actually BE a studio, and that's not done yet.
How long were they going to film? Couple weeks? Rent an actual warehouse/garage unit to build the sets in, rent a real studio for a month to cover a couple weeks of shooting plus time to assemble the sets (hell, to 2 months because they don't know what they're doing well enough to do it fast). $60k plus a warehouse/workshop rental. Saved them almost $500k, and that's with an assumed studio cost of about 6x what it actually costs.
Realistically, they wasted about a half million dollars JUST ON RENT because they were trying to get the donors to finance their for-profit studio build. And then another half million on decorating it (yay rugs!), trying to turn it into a studio, trips to advertise it, etc.
Kinda gross they're still trying to spin that, the numbers aren't even remotely close.
Hell, I'll even double their imaginary number and say it costs 30k/month to rent a suitable studio. They instead signed a 3-year lease for a $180k/year studio, $540k over 3 years, PLUS had (?) to spend hundreds of thousands upgrading it to actually BE a studio, and that's not done yet.
How long were they going to film? Couple weeks? Rent an actual warehouse/garage unit to build the sets in, rent a real studio for a month to cover a couple weeks of shooting plus time to assemble the sets (hell, to 2 months because they don't know what they're doing well enough to do it fast). $60k plus a warehouse/workshop rental. Saved them almost $500k, and that's with an assumed studio cost of about 6x what it actually costs.
Realistically, they wasted about a half million dollars JUST ON RENT because they were trying to get the donors to finance their for-profit studio build. And then another half million on decorating it (yay rugs!), trying to turn it into a studio, trips to advertise it, etc.
Kinda gross they're still trying to spin that, the numbers aren't even remotely close.
I really wish this crew would stop talking as if they deserve to be in the SF domain. They probably couldn't solve a pendulum period math problem between them. You get a pass for this only if you are doing good storytelling.
I ranted a few months ago about how their numbers left a big, apparently half million $ hole in their accounted for expenditures. "Where's the money?"
Lane's posting may have been a trial balloon for the thesis to be sold in the "officially reviewed" books. What bet they hold off on the official review publication after their numbers were shredded?
The thing that I find most amazing about Mr. Lane's claims is that they use up the credibility bandwidth that the donors and press may be willing to give wrt/ the project budget. Those folks may have been waiting for Alec to explain himself after all else has been said and done, or at least he had a moment he could use to that effect, earned by appearing to be the "hero" who fought to keep the project from being shut down.
This easily disproven and ridiculous pitch? It uses up that moment. It creates the odor that CBS/P may have been right and there's something scammy going on.
Way to go, team Axanar.
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If things look really bad, he will probably secretly sell out the asset to a 'partner', losing the fan investment at fire sale prices. Then claim he's still in charge and Axanar Productions still owns things and is doing great business, when in fact he's sharecropping in the facility.
I thought the studio is 1500 per day, so 45k per month? even so, your point stands.
If they'd spent 100k on a studio rental, built all the sets, hired all the actors/union ppl etc and actually filmed the movie, they'd have spent perhaps 300k and have something to show for it, rather than spending over a million and 2 minutes of badly comped green screen footage.
If they'd spent 100k on a studio rental, built all the sets, hired all the actors/union ppl etc and actually filmed the movie, they'd have spent perhaps 300k and have something to show for it, rather than spending over a million and 2 minutes of badly comped green screen footage.
A little rental stage 101 if I may 
Since the film was suppose to be sixty minutes (or even if it was 90 minutes) the shoot should not take more than 15-16 days to film in the studio using a standard break down of the shooting schedule. Their actual rental only costs should never exceed 50K IMO . The real money comes in on the crew and construction of sets. A good scenario would have been for them to rent the studio for 20-22 days to allow 5 days for set construction/pre-production, then film for 15-16 days*, then allow 2 days to strike the sets, dispose and clean up the rental stages.
* Keep in mind you are always building or refining sets even while filming for a this type of production.You start shooting on your easy to build sets and/or green screen near the beginning. This allows time to get more complicated sets done and shot late in the production. We had to do this, and also have multiple set constructions going on at the same time to maximize efficiency and time management.
The production has to be a well oiled machine, if set construction gets behind that could derail the entire production, especially when you can only get certain actors on certain days. A good producer MUST, I repeat MUST, have prior experience doing this and work his way up for that role! If he does not, he needs to hire a professional producer that does .
Again, as for rental vs. permanent studio for Axanar, with our a doubt he should have rented a studio and shot the dam film. He would have a had so much more money to get everything done at a professional level.
If he was worried about sets, or how long they would take to build. he should have rented very cheap warehouse space for one-six months (depending) before the shoot, with access to a loading dock. Have the sets built there in a way that can be broken down for portability. Then, when they shoot the film, they drive the set pieces over to the stage and set them up in very minimal time. When they are done they have them stored at a storage faculty (cheaper storage than a warehouse or stage) until needed for the sequel. This would have been one of the better ways to maximize time and money. You just have to be smart about what your doing.
Since the film was suppose to be sixty minutes (or even if it was 90 minutes) the shoot should not take more than 15-16 days to film in the studio using a standard break down of the shooting schedule. Their actual rental only costs should never exceed 50K IMO . The real money comes in on the crew and construction of sets. A good scenario would have been for them to rent the studio for 20-22 days to allow 5 days for set construction/pre-production, then film for 15-16 days*, then allow 2 days to strike the sets, dispose and clean up the rental stages.
* Keep in mind you are always building or refining sets even while filming for a this type of production.You start shooting on your easy to build sets and/or green screen near the beginning. This allows time to get more complicated sets done and shot late in the production. We had to do this, and also have multiple set constructions going on at the same time to maximize efficiency and time management.
The production has to be a well oiled machine, if set construction gets behind that could derail the entire production, especially when you can only get certain actors on certain days. A good producer MUST, I repeat MUST, have prior experience doing this and work his way up for that role! If he does not, he needs to hire a professional producer that does .
Again, as for rental vs. permanent studio for Axanar, with our a doubt he should have rented a studio and shot the dam film. He would have a had so much more money to get everything done at a professional level.
If he was worried about sets, or how long they would take to build. he should have rented very cheap warehouse space for one-six months (depending) before the shoot, with access to a loading dock. Have the sets built there in a way that can be broken down for portability. Then, when they shoot the film, they drive the set pieces over to the stage and set them up in very minimal time. When they are done they have them stored at a storage faculty (cheaper storage than a warehouse or stage) until needed for the sequel. This would have been one of the better ways to maximize time and money. You just have to be smart about what your doing.
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^^^
And said footage as I understand it was filmed in a parking lot - so they didn't even make use of the 'stidio for that footage.
That's cause it took them six months to half build the sets. With donated LCD monitors and toilets.
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