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CBS/Paramount sues to stop Axanar

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:lol: To me, it's looking like a plan. A fairly good one too. ...

The money still has to work. Rent and utilities are *not* all the costs of doing this.

The speculation his rent is not what he claims.. wouldn't such an action be a real problem for him if he claimed that rent in the lawsuit and "financial report" to potential class-action litigants, and it turned out to be false? Wouldn't that immediately point to money being stashed somewhere or withdrawn from his commingled personal/business account off of the company books, which the IRS might find? Is there a way to know what the rent is on a commercial lease? Its seems a little unlikely to me given the degree of risk it would create.
 
The latest begging letter:
March 17, 2017
Dear friends, fans and donors:

I'm pleased to announce that after an extensive amount of groundwork, we're ready to launch our crowdfunding campaign to secure Industry Studios' future. On Monday morning, at 9 am PDT, we'll be launching a 30-day Indiegogo campaign to help fund the hard costs associated with maintaining our soundstage facility in Valencia, California.

We've decided to launch this crowdfunding campaign at this time for a few reasons ...

1.) In order to secure Axanar Productions' unique position as a non-profit film production company, it's important we are able to offer (and use) high-quality production facilities at very low costs to independent filmmakers, fan film producers and students learning about filmmaking by actually doing it. Industry Studios - from the green screen to the soundstage to the dressing and make-up rooms - is the crown jewel in this "portfolio" we hope to offer this generation of up-and-coming writers, producers, directors and talent.

2.) While we won't rely solely on donations to operation (we are continuing to approach possible commercial projects about short-term facilities rentals), it is important for us to have as much donor support as possible and then manage our "inventory" of available time to lower-budget productions like fan films, student projects and fledgling independent productions based on that cashflow.

3.) We have several producers and directors who have already heard about our plans and have approached us about working together. We also have heard from schools in the LA area that they are interested in developing working relationships with us so their students can get experience working in genres of filmmaking that usually elude educational institutions with limited production facilities.

4.) And last, but certainly not least, we have a number of fan-related projects of our own we want to move ahead with - projects in addition to PROJECT: AXANAR. Securing our financial future with regard to our soundstage and offices will allow us to focus on producing content to share with all of you.

So stay tuned for what promises to be a very exciting - and important - point in the on-going development of Axanar Productions. We're excited about what we have to share with you about future projects and think we have a very interesting proposition for you to consider.

Have a great weekend!

Alec Peters
Axanar Productions
^^^
Yep Alec Peters is going Indegogo. Why? Probably because (unlike Kickstarter), if he fails to meet the goal - Alec Peters STILL gets some money; and I'm sure that Mr. Peters sees any 'free' money as a win. However, the only organization that really wins here is Indegogo - who of course always gets their fees; and the fees taken are higher if you don't make the stated goal..

I REALLY hope this latest campain goes as well as Mr. Lane's Indegogo campaign for the Industry Studios operating costs went in late 2016; (Read removed within 48 hours), with some people donating $5 JUST to comment on what Alec peters lack of shame and asking "Hey where did the 1.4 Million you already raised via Crowdfunding go?"

Who knows, maybe CBS/Paramount will see this as a breach of the Lawsuit Settlement as 'Star Trek', 'Axanar' and the 'Axanar Project' are mentioned in the pitch video and text. (Do I think Alec Peters is stupid enough to see if he can still poke the Bear and get away with it? Yep. Sad thing is, he probably will - but one can hope he doesn't.)

Time will tell.
 
Indiegogo is the platform that allows you to accept the donations even if they don't reached their desired total, correct?

Allowing that we don't know for sure what the exact monthly rent figure may actually be, does anyone know how much a similar sized warehouse would have cost to BUY? Just curious, cos even if $15,000 is correct, over three years that comes to $540,000. Could a similar size building have been bought?

Yes but probably not in the 30 mile zone. Who wants to be an Oklahoma Executive Movie Producer when you can be a Hollywood Executive Movie Producer?
 
:lol: I didn't mean to imply puppet master. But I do think what you say here may be at least part of it:
"I could see him as the guy who lit Alec's 'spark' so to speak and pushed it and pushed it and pushed it until Alec really started to believe it was all his idea."

Watching the Trekzone interview again I was reminded of what he said there:
41:45 Regarding prepping a client on talking 'before' an interview. Writing it out. Carlos says 'he' could even write it for the guy. Bawden laughs and says:
"It's been written. You do these things for clients. Whether they use them or not is a whole other matter sometimes..... I make lots of suggestions and I propose lots of solutions and... we are making 'some' progress"
---------------
43:32 "Like I try to tell clients our recommended approach to business is Ready, Aim, Fire. And unfortunately most of the clients we get have followed a strategy of Ready, Fire, Aim."

I'm figuring this went on for the past year; 'I advise, he takes or leaves it. But we inch forward.'

thiswholething concludes... and Mr. Bawden is still here.

Mind you I'm speculating again but it was this concluded outcome which just might have the defendant paying closer attention to Mr. Bawden now.

"And so you have to sit down and say 'Whadda ya doing? You're gonna have to stop some of these things. You're gonna have to walk some of this back."
1:06:33 "And the thing that's important, the prudent thing that has to be done, is you have to get back, refocus, get back to the things that matter."
1:07:30 "And, given the money that's available, what 'can' be done."

And I circle back to what you said, @RedForman, which makes a whole lot of sense to me given the personality of the client Mr. Bawden is working with:
"I could see him as the guy who lit Alec's 'spark' so to speak and pushed it and pushed it and pushed it until Alec really started to believe it was all his idea."


Then I listen to the @TREKZONE.org interview some more, the part where Mr. Bawden is going on at length about a future he sees.

1:00:00 "Fan films I think are initiating a whole new era in content development. Especially for web delivered video and keep in mind now a lot of people are watching web video on large screen high definition televisions. So it's not little teeny YouTube viewers that are watching this video on now."

The following part is where I speculate I see Mr. Bawden steering the defendant, and possibly one reason Mr. Bawden is still here. And because of the settlement the defendant may now be listening to him, like once upon a time he used listened to Christian Gossett which made the defendant himself appear to be a success and put him center stage in the limelight.

1:00:32 "You know, most of the work that I do is in the world of advertising and public relations, working with corporate clients and developing what we call Native Content. Stories about real people doing real things and I just today got an email back - I've got a $200K budget to produce a project like that."

1:00:52 "Now, while who knows what the future of crowdfunding is I think websites like kickstarter, indiegogo, and all of those other crowdfunding sites have a definite place. I imagine that they will continue to fine-tune their offering. And hopefully projects will continue to, creators will be able to continue to find that as a relative real source for their projects."

1:01:20 "But if you take a look at the Other Money that's out there in the marketplace now,"
[^^That is where I speculate Mr. Bawden's connections might now begin to be in play.]
"and the need to tell stories... and then you compare that to what ............ so many of these high quality fan film makers are doing, you're starting to realize a production value and an ability to tell stories in a variety of lengths that has really just never existed before."

1:01:49 "I'm very excited about where this could go. And while I share Carlos' concern for the future of fan films I think that the Real Opportunity long term is that creators are gonna look at what's able to be done for 1% of what a tent-pole feature costs today. And they're gonna realize that that becomes a much more attractive proposition to the prospective Investor who may give you enough money to produce five films hoping one of them 'hits' as opposed to trying to by 1% of a significant independent film production or a significant studio production."

1:02:27 "So, I think that's a very interesting future ahead. And I think that we're seeing, with shows like Continues, with shows like NV, shows like [Prelude] I think you're seeing the future of where this new wave of entertainment's going to come from."


Now, let's just say for a minute, you have/or have connections with a Film School... you have a ready made pool of people training to 'be' in all aspects of films, rushing to you to do all the volunteering you need on anything you're making. Just to get the experience. So your production costs drop significantly.

And what did @Serveaux just post?

Check

And you want lots of films being made there so you pitch 'Come to us and make your films for next to nothing.'

Check

Not much says Success more than having lots of business 'seemingly' going on at your place.

Check

Mr. Bawden has ideas of his own, and connections to get them going with paying customers, and most probably... Investors.

Check

And you need to pay the bills until you're self supporting. So you do an upfront payallthebills crowdfund targeting fanboy & fangirls!

Check

:lol: To me, it's looking like a plan. A fairly good one too. One I speculate that has Mr. Bawden at the center.

With the lion's share being as you mention, @RedForman :
"I could see him as the guy who lit Alec's 'spark' so to speak and pushed it and pushed it and pushed it until Alec really started to believe it was all his idea."

This talk of RMB's and MB's saying they can do a $100 million film for $1 million only works if labor laws are broken. I wonder how that will work out for them? Any legitimate angel investor would laugh them out of the room.
 
"Dear donors who we stiffed out of almost 2 million of fan money specifically earmarked for Axanar... please help secure the future of the studio we bought with your money, so we can run Axanar Productions as a resource for all sorts of deserving low cost productions, and also a list of things we hope to do in SF ourselves, which eventually may include Axanar if you give enough. Sorry we didn't make the film to start with, but its all the lawsuit's fault."

The way I see it, he has the Axanar fanbase, which if they see that proposal, and how far down the list their movie is, may balk; and he has innocents who don't know his history with this studio, but who will probably be amply warned once the campaign starts.

Its like medicine man moving from town to town.



It is unbelievable he still thinks he can get away with "nonprofit"* (* "operating as a"* (* "we don't make any money and we spend all donations on investments we personally own and on benefits to ourselves"))

"And if we don't get enough money to make Axanar it's your fault, donors!" (Wait but we just gave you $1.4 million...)

And isn't claiming to be a charity when you actually are no such thing illegal in California?
 
Indiegogo is the platform that allows you to accept the donations even if they don't reached their desired total, correct?

Allowing that we don't know for sure what the exact monthly rent figure may actually be, does anyone know how much a similar sized warehouse would have cost to BUY? Just curious, cos even if $15,000 is correct, over three years that comes to $540,000. Could a similar size building have been bought?
Buying would still be more expensive, so far as I can tell.
http://www.loopnet.com/Listing/19816576/28486-Westinghouse-Place-Unit-120-Valencia-CA/
This building^ is an industrial space for sale in Valencia. The seller is also asking for over $1.3 M.
 
Thanks @jespah, was just wondering, and had no idea how to go about finding out that style info.

By the way, what is the significance of 'the thirty mile zone'? Is it just proximity, or are there business, financial or tax advantages being within it?
 
The money still has to work. Rent and utilities are *not* all the costs of doing this.

The speculation his rent is not what he claims.. wouldn't such an action be a real problem for him if he claimed that rent in the lawsuit and "financial report" to potential class-action litigants, and it turned out to be false? Wouldn't that immediately point to money being stashed somewhere or withdrawn from his commingled personal/business account off of the company books, which the IRS might find? Is there a way to know what the rent is on a commercial lease? Its seems a little unlikely to me given the degree of risk it would create.

I would be shocked if a class-action suit ever happens.
 
This talk of RMB's and MB's saying they can do a $100 million film for $1 million only works if labor laws are broken. I wonder how that will work out for them? Any legitimate angel investor would laugh them out of the room.
Yes, you do make a very excellent point there.

And there 'is' DoL criteria that must be met for using unpaid Interns and from what I'm seeing film school students may be an easy match for the criteria with 'fan films'. I would 'think' to a much lesser extent or fewer places for volunteer Interns with clients who are filming specifically to make a profit; Native Advertisers, strait to for-pay streaming services. Money people.

Regarding the film union rules.. I both know from first hand conversations with people who work in the Hollywood film world as well as believe from the internet research I've previously done on exactly this thing confirming there are in place right now legitimate work-arounds for union wages by at least more than a few of the unions for the zero, micro-, low budget, and new media filmers. One example I recall right now is pmt deferment for union people until sales reach '$X' which may or may not be reached, or even up-front to everyone not be expected to Ever be reached. There are other examples I'm just not recalling right now.


Producer Jason Blum is one of Hollywood's finest success examples in doing almost exactly that $1M vs $100M thing. And he's also doing the thing Mr. Bawden spoke of "produce five films hoping one of them 'hits' as opposed to trying to by 1% of a significant independent film production". He's known to rescue stalled multiple-tens-of-millions-of-dollars budgeted films, slashing the budget to a tenth, even less, of the original budget, and bringing in a profit on them. Sometimes Yuge profits! And he's not so much making them on the cheap as he is refocusing the allocation of what the money is spent On. Story & script = big money but it's on back end deals with the writers. Director = scale with back end deal. Sound = really good money though sometimes scale with back end deals. DP = good money but often scale upfront & back end deals. Crew = bare bones but good. Known actors = sometimes yes, sometimes no, depending on the story/script. The known actors work for scale with back end deals. Most of his horror movies don't use known actors. And scheduling shooting with known actors to reduce costs for them is essential. Trailers for actors = nope. Other traditional amenities = nuh uh. Blood/gore/car crashes/special effects = not so much, or at all. Sets = dream big on the content of your story plots - not the sets! Lots of stuff like that. And Mr. Blum refuses to go over budget. But, and here's the thing, within the budget his film makers have total freedom to make their films the way they want them. He's known to make suggestions but if they don't use them he does not interfere. Look him up. I 'think' he's gotten at least one Emmy and at least one Academy Award nomination.

And get this, Jason Blum's major output movies is in - Horror films. And what is the defendant (and I'm speculating Mr. Bawden) courting? Sci-fi, fantasty --- and Horror films.


I'm in the dark about pay, unions, and Native Advertising. But I do know that Native Advertising is a booming product right now with Big Name Businesses. So I speculate if the studio also gets into Native Advertising the Big Business Clients will provide ample pay for the crew according to union rules. I speculate Everybody will get paid well with Native Advertising when they have a Big Business Client; cost of all aspects of renting the studio, crew, and cast. Everybody gets to eat when Big Business is the client. :)
 
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Perhaps there is a business opportunity. But all they have achieved so far is being able to offer lower prices due to having no vested investors or build out costs to recover, and perhaps being willing to collude (legally) to push the boundaries of IP law, union standards, etc.

They still need skilled staff. I could see a model a bit like the student dentistry services of colleges... shoot your commercial project with the involvement of interns, get a lower price.

Surely they are not the first to think that low cost productions is an opportunity. It really comes down to execution and lingering consequences of their known history, and realities of shark-eat-shark financing.

Will anyone want to support it unless they can take it over so they can be sure its done professionally and for a real profit? I don't know.

Will the value of the donations put into the studio get converted to a buyout for the studio/business owners who may be perceived as dragging the operation down? Its a distinct possibility if they can survive a bit longer.

And then we have a scenario where donor money finally ends up having made a round trip into the pockets of the fundraisers, with only a small fraction of it having been put into a film, and no investment dividends to the providers of the start-up cash, and perhaps only a token commitment of the studio to the originally stated aims.
 
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Thanks @jespah, was just wondering, and had no idea how to go about finding out that style info.

By the way, what is the significance of 'the thirty mile zone'? Is it just proximity, or are there business, financial or tax advantages being within it?
I suspect some or all of that, but I will defer that to folks who make films, @Tom @Jody Wheeler @carlosp I am certain there are many more folks who can answer that question better than I can.

PS I found the lease/purchase info via Google. I think Zillow might just be for residential properties, but this was just a straightforward search, as I recall, it was something like warehouse rental Valencia California. And then once I got to the site I started to poke around.
 
@jespah

Thank you for that search, when its something like that, I imagine it will be more complex to find out something.

@muCephi

And thank you too. I remember years ago being surprised that CSI was filmed on the west coast, with all the appropriate library shots of Vegas inserted. And then that many shows aren't actually filmed in their respective cities!

Which, because I live in Scotland, makes it funny as hell that Glasgow has been used for scenes in films set in Philadelphia and San Fransisco!

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2011/sep/16/glasgow-favourite-location-hollywood-filmmakers
 
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